In order to drive innovation and growth in a nation is it important to have innovative companies. Many of those innovative companies are smaller companies, which are in need of capital injections for expansion of its operations or to be able to produce a commercial product. In many cases the banks will not lend because they believe there is too great a risk that they will not get their money back. It is in this situation venture capital becomes interesting. Venture capitalists’ see the potential the product and/or entrepreneur possesses and are therefore more willing to take the risk in investing in these companies. Venture capital doesn´t just bring capital in to the investment, but also competence. For venture capitalists’ to get a return from their investments they need to get the portfolio companies to increase in value. This increase in value can be created through the venture capitalists’ different roles and methods. The different roles and methods also determine what the value created will be and in what way the venture capitalist will be involved in their portfolio company.Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the role and the involvement venture capital firms have in their portfolio companies and how they create value in their portfolio companies.Implementation: This study is a survey study, based on earlier research, with mainly a quantitative approach. The data collected has been analyzed with essentially an abductive method. To assist the completion of this study, we made significance tests on the differences between venture capital firms’ and portfolio companies' responses, to examine in which aspects they agreed.Conclusion: There are five roles that are common among venture capitalists: financiers, advisors, supervisors of financial performance, acting as a sounding board and providers of a wider network of contacts. The form of involvement that emerges in this study is inactive to active advisor. Venture capital firms create value by contributing to a larger network of contacts, financing, improvement of accounting procedures, supervision/monitoring, counseling and strategic guidance. The contribution that venture capital firms make to their portfolio companies is a non-financial value in the form of larger network of contacts and a greater motivation/better working environment for the portfolio company's manager/CEO.Keywords: Venture Capital, roles, involvement, creation of value, portfolio companies / För att driva innovation och tillväxt i en nation är det viktigt med innovativa företag. Dessa är i många fall mindre företag som är i behov av kapital för exempelvis expansion av sin verksamhet eller för att kunna få fram en kommersiell produkt. I många fall vill inte banker bevilja lån då de anser att det finns en alltför stor risk att de inte får tillbaka lånet. Det är här riskkapital kommer in. De ser till den potential som produkten och/eller entreprenören besitter och är därför mer villiga att ta den risk som det medför att investera i dessa företag. Riskkapitalbolag bidrar inte bara med kapital i form av betalningsmedel utan också med kompetens. För att riskkapitalisten ska få avkastning behöver denne få entreprenörsföretaget att öka i värde. Detta kan göras genom olika roller och olika tillvägagångssätt för värdeskapande som riskkapitalbolagen kan åta sig. Det avgör också vad för värde som skapas samt vilken form av involvering riskkapitalbolagen har.Syfte: Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka roller och vilken form av involvering riskkapitalbolag har i sina portföljbolag samt hur de går tillväga för att skapa värde i portföljbolagen.Genomförande: I denna studie användes framför allt en kvantitativ enkätundersökning baserad på tidigare forskning som sedan analyserades med en i huvudsak abduktiv ansats. Som hjälp till fullbordandet av denna studie gjorde vi också hypotesprövningar på skillnaderna mellan riskkapitalbolagens och portföljbolagens svar för att undersöka vilka aspekter de var överens om.Slutsats: Det finns fem roller som är vanligt förekommande bland riskkapitalbolagen: finansiär, rådgivare, övervakning/kontroll av finansiell prestation, agera bollplank och bidra med ett större kontaktnätverk. Involveringen som framkommer är inaktiv till aktiv rådgivare. Riskkapitalbolagen skapar värde genom bidragande av ett större kontaktnätverk, finansiering, förbättring av redovisning, övervakning/kontroll, rådgivning och strategiskt arbete. De bidrar med icke-ekonomiskt värde i form av större kontaktnätverk och en större motivation/bättre arbetssituation för portföljbolagets chef/VD.Nyckelord: riskkapital, roller, involvering, värdeskapande, portföljbolag

The concept of heritage is full of conflicts and contestations. The UNESCO’s intervention in the form of the “World Heritage Convention” enriches the meaning of heritage but may exacerbate the intrinsic tensions in heritage while expanding its economic significance through tourism. Heritage tourism is an effective means to realize the economic potential of heritage. This is a major reason why developing countries like China apply for UNESCO world heritage designation. However, some stakeholders take more benefits while others bear more costs in the interplay of heritage conservation and tourism. Achievement of a balance among resource conservation, tourism development, and local community well-being is a pressing challenge for planning and management of World Heritage Sites. This research examines the implications of World Heritage designation for conservation of the world heritage and, particularly, for the lives of local people living in and around the site. It is argued that such people often bear the most costs while often being ignored or disadvantaged in terms of benefits. Sustainability of local life is interdependent with sustainability of heritage conservation and tourism. A key goal of heritage planning should be to mitigate heritage contestation and dissonance, and to sustain local people’s livelihoods and enhance their life quality. This would be conducive to the overall sustainability of the heritage resource. Using Mount Taishan, a UNESCO world heritage site in China, as a case study, employing a plan and implementation evaluation approach, and taking a community perspective, this thesis evaluates the plans for the world heritage site and their implementation from three perspectives: resource conservation, visitor experience and local well-being (particularly local involvement in, and benefit from tourism). A mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods is used and the transferability and applicability of western heritage planning and evaluation methods to China is examined implicitly. It is shown that much attention has been placed on resource conservation on this world heritage site, although the desire for economic returns underpins the conservation. The resource integrity of the heritage mountain has been marred by the construction of several cable cars for tourism. The number of visitors keeps growing. However, visitor experiences are generally positive except for crowding during the high seasons and length of stay has decreased. Local involvement in decision making relating to heritage operations is low. Local involvement in the provision of tourism services is high but uneven, and usually under the organization of the village committees. Faced with land loss, displacement, and livelihood change, villagers are very positive toward and very much dependent on tourism as the major or sole means of making a living. The power-relations that are reflected in the heritage nexus are a key issue. As the most powerful stakeholder, the local government’s intervention produces high efficiency and also inequity. Short-term goals are sought, reflecting the short tenure of officials. Within this context, western heritage planning ideas, including the advocacy of community involvement and public participation, have met many challenges in China, although this could change with socio-political developments in China.

Family business research is a rapidly growing topic of interest. Nevertheless there has been little research explicitly dedicated to the connection between consumers’ and family businesses. This paper gives insight about the influence of the family business brand image and consumers’ purchase intentions. Hereby it was taken into consideration  that  low-involvement and product knowledge can influence this path. This was done by a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The findings showed that consumers associate family business with high quality, passion, heritage, traditions, small companies and craftsmanship. In general these associations do not influence consumers buying behavior. However, specific target groups showed different results. Implications focus on using the family business as a secondary brand image and family businesses should deal with caution when using their origin as a primary brand image.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate if there is a relationship between brandinvolvement, brand attitude and buying intention. From the purpose, two hypotheses weredeveloped. Brand involvement has a positive impact on brand attitude and a positive Brandattitude has a positive impact on buying intention. They were tested on the eventMöbelriksdagen. A quantitative method was used, an e‐mail questionnaire was sent out to400 previous participants to Möbelriksdagen and 80 of them responded. The result showsthat the hypothesis is supported. There is a clear connection between both brandinvolvement and brand attitude, and between brand attitude and buying intention. Thesefindings give organizations an understanding of the importance of having involved customersto affect the brand attitude, buying intention and event participation. Recommendations arepresented and could help organizations to know what is important to focus on when theywant to affect buying intention and event participation.

This thesis studied four CEMUS courses offered in spring 2011. The purpose of this study was: 1) to measure CEMUS students‘ self-reported behavior and action as well as behavior intention towards sustainable development; 2) to analyze different factors and barriers to their behavior and action; 3) to analyze course coordinators‘ knowledge and perspectives about behavior change and action towards sustainable development; and 4) to analyze each course‘s impact on students. Finally, this thesis discusses how education can be improved to foster behavior and action towards sustainable development. This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. According to the results, most CEMUS students were willing to recycle; to switch off electricity when it‘s not needed; and to travel by bicycle or public transportation instead of by car. On the other hand, fewer students had a willingness to pay for environmental costs and to cut down water consumption and waste. Among the opportunities for indirect action, it was political participation and working within the field of sustainable development (SD) that were most preferred. In contrast, much fewer students were willing to avoid purchasing products from companies with poor track records on CSR, to participate in voluntary work related to SD and to donate money for social or environmental causes. The two most frequently perceived constraints for behavior change among students were a lack of money and obstructive social norms. As a course outcome, four out of six coordinators expect students to take action afterwards but there is a lack of knowledge on how to encourage students to behave and act more sustainably. Based on the results, this thesis discussed what kinds of learning methods can be applied in CEMUS and ESD. It was concluded that education should focus on a specific domain and a small spatial scale, and assign project assignments in which students communicate and interact with stakeholders. Such an approach will help to approach the goals of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). CEMUS could also implement the theory of locus of control, emotional involvement and four different kinds of knowledge in their education in order to improve the effectiveness of CEMUS courses when it comes to promoting behavior and action towards sustainable development.

Thesis Title: Applying customer involvement in B2B Sales – Case study on a medical device company Date: 10th of June, 2012 Subject, Course: Business Administration, 15 hec. Enterprising and Business Development, 2EB00E. Author: Anna Degrell, 25-01-1989 6647 Advisor: Magnus Forslund Examiner: Richard Nakamura Keywords: Customer Involvement, B2B, Sales, Organize, Apply, Value, Case Study, Medical Device Company Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how customer involvement can be applied in business to business (B2B) sales. Method: the method of choice for this thesis will be within a qualitative approach and contains a case study, with semi structured interviews based on Operationalization of theoretical concepts, and analyzed by grounded theory. Result: Customer Involvement can be presented in several ways within B2B sales; the case study on the medical device company in this thesis has applied the involvement in so-called Sight-visits and as a concept called doctor-to-doctor.

Abstract Problem statement – what factors determine brand loyalty in Smartphone? Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine causal antecedent factors leading to brandloyalty in the Swedish Smartphone market Theory – theoretical review and critical analysis of academic journals related to dependantand independent variables and conceptual model is formulated. Methodology - Quantitative approach is used to quantify the relationship between dependantand independent variables based on the proposed theoretical model that delineates therelationships between dependant variable brand loyalty and the independent variablescustomer satisfaction, perceived quality, brand experience, brand image, brand switching costand product involvement. Data – In total 200 responses were collected through a structured interview from UppsalaUniversity, Uppsala central train and bus station and two big shopping centers in Uppsala (S: tper galleria and Forum galleria). Apple and Sony Ericsson brand users are interviewed in thedata gathering process, 100 respondents for each brand Findings – the analysis suggest brand image, product involvement and customer satisfactiondetermined brand loyalty in Apple brand, whereas customer satisfaction was the onlydeterminate factor in Sony Ericsson brand

Bakgrund: Massturism och dess utveckling har lett till att människor blivit intresserade av mer än endast sol och bad. Detta har gett förutsättningar för utvecklingen av en ny gren inom turism, nämligen den alternativa turismen. För att kunna överleva på marknaden måste resebyråer med tematiska resor erbjuda det lilla extra och skapa mervärde med sina kunder. Detta kan exempelvis göras genom en tvåvägskommunikation och genom att bygga upp relationer både intern och extern i organisationen. Problemformulering: Vilka faktorer är viktiga för att temaresebyråer ska kunna överleva på marknaden och skapa mervärde för sina kunder? Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att analysera och utvärdera sambandet mellan intern marknadsföring och återkommande kunder. Metod: Detta arbete har en kvalitativ ansats därför att det leder till en djupare förståelse av fenomenet som undersöks. Empirin består till största del av primärdata inhämtad via djupintervjuer med företag representanter. Teorier: De teoretiska ansatserna som anses relevanta för uppsatsen är Intern marknadsföring, Mervärdesteori, Lärande, Affärsidé, Kvalitet, Involveringsteori och Relation. Resultat och Slutsats: För att kunna överleva på den konkurrensutsatta marknaden bör ett företag skapa konkurrensfördelar genom att bygga upp relationer med sina kunder och göra de till lojala. Lojala, återkommande kunder kan ur ett långsiktigt perspektiv vara lönsamma för företaget. För att kunna dra nytta av sina lojala kunder bör företagen föra statistik över sina återkommande kunder och på så sätt få en tydlig bild över hur dessa kunder påverkar företagets överlevnad och lönsamhet.

One common idea within participation theory is the need for new approaches in decision making that emphasize a two-way interaction between decision makers and the public as well as deliberation among participants. Citizens should be given the opportunity to weigh evidence, discuss and debate potential decision options and possibly arrive at mutual agreements by which all parties can abide. The demand for sound scientific information and public participation is particularly great especially in adapting to some of the impacts of climate change such as floods due to sea level rise. The uncertainties and the socially sensitive nature of such risk, makes it important for all relevant stakeholders to be involved. This study draws on two research projects carried out in Sweden and Denmark with the intention of engaging stakeholders in finding suitable ways of adapting to climate change. The two cases that have been selected for this study include the SEAREG (Sea Level Change Affecting the Spatial Development in the Baltic Sea Region) and the BALTCICA (Climate Change: Impacts, Costs and Adaptation in the Baltic Sea Region). Using a comparative case study method, this thesis looks into the design of participatory processes and the conceptions that underlie them, as well as the consequences on the active participation of other stakeholders with a particular focus on the public. Some of the main differences on the extent of public participation between these projects are sorted out and compared using theoretical perspectives from participation theory. Both cases cut across the local and national scales of decision making and use flooding scenarios in communicating with the public. However, the design of these scenarios as well as the participatory models differ.

Sammanfattning   Bakgrund: När människor blir patienter inom psykiatrisk vård upplever de sig ofta utlämnade till andras välvilja. De kan ofta redan innan ha en skör och svag autonomi och deras egen medverkan och delaktighet i vården kan ibland vara svår att särskilja. Det finns en stor aktualitet i ämnet delaktighet då patienters rättigheter, självbestämmande, inflytande och ansvar i vården på många sätt står i fokus idag.     Syfte: Att beskriva patienters erfarenhet av delaktighet inom psykiatrisk vård   Metod: Metoden är en litteraturstudie där 14 vetenskapliga artiklar som svarar på syftet och frågeställningarna för studien har sökts fram. Analysmetoden baseras på en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där meningsbärande enheter identifieras som vidare kodas i kategorier och utvecklas till centrala teman.   Resultat: Resultatet redovisas under fem huvudteman; att bli sedd, att få veta, att utgå från patienten, att ha kontroll och egenmakt samt att hindras av sitt sjukdomslidande med tillhörande underteman. Resultatet visar att bekräftelse i vårdrelationen är viktigt för att skapa förutsättningar för patientens delaktighet. Om en patient har en känsla av att bli sedd, hörd, förstådd, respekterad som individ och bekräftad av vårdare kan ett ömsesidigt givande och tagande i relation uppstå och utgöra en god grund för delaktigheten. Patientens möjlighet till delaktighet hämmas av den traditionella hierarkiska strukturen i den psykiatriska vården, vilken initierar patientens känsla av maktlöshet och uppgivenhet.   Diskussion: För patienterna krävdes det mer än allmän snällhet och information av vårdarna för att de skulle kunna uppleva sig som delaktiga i en jämställd vårdrelation. Det är först när stödet och informationen förmår möta patientens livsvärld som en genuin delaktighet uppnås.      Nyckelord: patientdelaktighet, brukarmedverkan, psykiatrisk vård, psykisk hälsa / Abstract   Background: When a person becomes a patient in psychiatric care they often feel omitted to the kindness of the care givers. They can often have a history of fragile and weak autonomy and their own involvement and participation in care can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. Patients’ rights, autonomy, influence and responsibility in health care is in many ways in focus today, the matter is therefore of great importance.   Aim: To describe patients' experiences of participation in psychiatric care.   Method: The method is a literature review where 14 scientific articles that matches the purpose and questions for the study have been sought out. The method for analyzing is based on a qualitative content analysis in which meaningful units have been identified and coded into categories to form central themes. Result: The result are presented in five central themes; being seen, to know, to start from the patient's perspective, to have control and empowerment and as being hindered by their illness suffering, with its sub-themes. The result shows that affirmation from the caregiver is important to create conditions for the patient’s involvement. If a patient has a feeling of being seen, heard, understood, respected as an individual and confirmed by caregivers, a mutual give and take in relationships arise, and provide a good basis for participation. The Patient's possibility to be involved is hampered by the traditional hierarchical structure of mental health services, which initiates the patient's sense of powerlessness and despair. Discussion: For the patients, it took more than general kindness and useful information to enable them to experience themselves as equal participants of a care relationship. It is only when the support and information is able to meet the patient's reality as a genuine involvement is achieved.   Keywords: patient participation, user involvement, psychiatric care, mental health